VidBlaster 3 Review for 2015

Installation

The installation process is pretty straight forward. Download the installer and run the package.

I’m not a big fan of programs that require a reboot after installation (it is usually a sign of bad coding), and VidBlaster asked me to reboot after installing.

Another issue I have is the installation of custom audio functions. My system has 3 sound cards and a very specific driver set that I have chosen to work with my setup. I didn’t install the audio functions because they have a bad habit of screwing up your audio settings.

Even though I skipped the audio functions, everything appears to work fine.

The Interface

The interface hasn’t changed much (or at all) since the last review. While I like the idea of being able to rearrange the dashboard to fit your needs, the interface is very cluttered and confusing. Plus standard features like drag-to-resize are totally non-existent. It was really annoying to try and use the interface on my 4k monitor and was forced to grab my 1080p monitor just so I could actually see the text.

Quite honestly, the interface is what you would expect from a Windows 95 program and is definitely a big downfall for Vidblaster.

The Inputs

After spending the better part of an hour searching for a method to enable chroma keying, I gave up. My camera’s were only being recognized in 640×480 resolution (they are 1080p cameras) and I couldn’t find any where to change the option. Maybe it’s there, but I wasn’t able to find it.

I spent some time playing with the overlay and other modules. The overlays are limited to just standard images and the menus to adjust the settings are confusing.

Also, on my workstation (i7 @4ghz with 32gig of RAM, aka well above the standard computer most people use) the transitions where choppy and not nearly as smooth as their competitors transitions.

The Outputs

Outputting to various formats is limited to MPEG1 & MPEG2 formats with no support for MP4 .h264 which is offered with every other broadcast manager available.

I did do a few test recordings and the quality is ok. Not great, but should be good if you only plan on providing standard definition content.

The Price

This is the #1 reason I will never recommend Vidblaster. Licensing starts at 195.00 for the very basic version which is about on par with some of the other players in the broadcast software market. However, this price is very deceiving as you only get 7 “modules” unless you upgrade to a higher package (and if you think $195USD is high, you should see the other packages).

I’d be ok with the price if you actually got the value from the software, but you don’t. The price is on the level with semi-professional broadcasting software but is nothing more than an amateur package on par with free software such as Open Broadcast Software.

The Overall Conclusion

Unless you have money to just throw away at software that doesn’t quite stand up for the price and is severely limited when compared to its peers, I highly recommend that you try out the other options available.

I did have high hopes for the latest Vidblaster, but it’s just not possible for me to recommend it when so many other options on the market are miles ahead of it’s aging architecture.